The One Fall Recipe To Try Even If You're Lazy AF

We always look forward to autumn for a number of reasons. The foliage changes colors, and crunchy leaves are a real joy to step on. Baggy sweaters take over your closet, making it even easier to go braless. Then, of course, there are the eats: pumpkin spice everything, your favorite comfort foods, and the seasonal recipes you've been patiently waiting to try all year. Even if you're no Martha Stewart in the kitchen, we've got a few fall recipes you can't miss — they're that good.

Cooking during the fall season is unique in its own right, and the menu changes entirely. Summer's tropical fruits and light salads are swapped out for hearty stews, anything in the squash family, and pumpkin as far as the eye can see.

Now, I'm no Houdini in the kitchen. I can follow a recipe, but I've also been known to botch a meal that was left in the oven too long or taken out too early and deemed inedible. But these are recipes I simply can't resist. Even if you're not the best cook, even if you're a total lazybones, make the fall meal of a lifetime, complete with an appetizer, main course, and dessert from these food bloggers who have autumn on lock.

Appetizer

If heaven made love to a sack of sweet potatoes, their child would be the Brie & Brown Sugar Bacon Sweet Potato Fries from Cooking for Keeps. The sweet potato (often sold as a yam) is a fall favorite. Forget what you know about sweet potato; forget what you know about brie. These fries are on another level. Even if this type of cheese isn't your jam, the flavor completely changes in the presence of the almighty bacon. Brie and bacon make for the ultimate food combination, and this ends up being one of those appetizers people will fill up on before the rest of the meal is even done cooking. Truthfully, this is the way God meant for appetizers to be. It's sweet. It's salty. It's happiness in your mouth.

Get the full recipe here.

Main Course

You haven't lived until you've tasted the Pumpkin Chili from A Spicy Perspective. Autumn is the perfect time for a giant bowl of chili (and don't forget the cornbread!); and what better way to spice things up than adding in fall's most famous squash plant? This recipe is made with pumpkin puree, which — if you're anything like me — you've probably got 20 cans of lying around in the pantry.

Plus, the pumpkin makes it easier to use beef, chicken, or turkey as your meat of choice, since pumpkin complements them all equally. (You could even leave the meat out entirely, for a delicious vegetarian alternative.) Enjoy this on those chili autumn nights (Get it? Chili? Chilly? HA!); and before you even ask, yes, you should definitely have a second bowl.

Get the full recipe here.

Dessert

Dessert is so good that sometimes, I like to skip dinner completely so that I can get to it faster; and these Mini Caramel-Chai Spiced Apple Pies from A Cozy Kitchen are perfect, because it's so much easier to justify eating an entire mini pie all by yourself than it is a regular-sized pie (although I would still find a way to justify that too, just so we're clear).

Caramel and chai are two more fall flavors most of us love, found in a variety of seasonal drinks; and their combination provides a sweet and spicy kick to the classic American dessert. Plus, look at how dang adorable these little guys are! My pies would never be that pretty, but my stomach won't know the difference, so do I care? No. Add a scoop of vanilla on top and your evening is complete, my friend.

Get the full recipe here.